


New Game

by SkyShadow22



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fallout 4 - Freeform, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 11:23:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5414945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyShadow22/pseuds/SkyShadow22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe plays Fallout 4 while Max tries to do homework. Slice of life piece about their life a couple years after the storm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New Game

**Author's Note:**

> Possible spoilers for end of Life is Strange/beginning of Fallout 4.

“MAX MAX MAX!”

“What’s up, Chloe?” Max yelled towards the other room.

“COME HERE!” Chloe yelled back. She sounded excited, most likely about something in her game. Max had gotten her Fallout 4 as a surprise gift, which she had just started playing. She was pretty sure Chloe would have done more than just kiss her had Kate not been at their apartment when she gave it to her. 

“One sec,” Max called as she set down her pen. “I guess homework will have to wait,” she said to herself. Chloe was already putting off homework to play her game. Max made her promise to do homework this weekend if she played all day today. “Do you want a drink or anything?” she asked Kate, who was sitting on their bedroom floor. She was working on her second children’s book, her pencil carefully moving across the notebook as she drew.

“Do you have any more Sprite?” she asked politely. Kate always acted like it was her first time as a guest in their home; very formal and respectful. It didn’t bother Max. She actually found it adorable.

“Kate, neither of us drinks Sprite. We buy it just for you.”

“Oh. May I have one?”

“Of course.” Kate liked hanging out at their apartment to work. Max couldn’t understand why, since Chloe had a habit of either yelling at her Xbox or playing loud music. But they both liked having Kate over and kept snacks on hand for her. Apparently her parents didn’t let her have super sweet snacks when she was growing up. Probably for the best, since Kate had never had to have her teeth cleaned at the dentist. But Chloe and Max were cracking up the first time Kate took a bite of a molten chocolate cake and they kept chocolate dipped cookies in the cabinet just for her.

Max got up from her desk and moved carefully across the room, stepping over Alice, Kate’s bunny, and Salvador, their gray kitten, as they bounced playfully around the room. A woman in Kate’s church was giving kittens to good homes, but Salvador was missing part of his leg due to a birth defect. Max knew it would be hard for him to find a home, so she had talked Chloe into adopting him. Now that they had him, though, Chloe was the one who gave him the most attention.

“Maaaaaaax,” Chloe whined from the living room. Max walked down the hall and turned into the kitchen, then started digging through all the leftovers in the fridge. Their apartment basically had one big room that served as the living room, dining room, and kitchen. The only other rooms were the bathroom and their bedroom. It was small, but they didn’t really have much stuff since the storm. They had stayed with Max’s parents while Max finished her senior year and Chloe got her GED. The two of them then enrolled in the same college and moved here, to a town outside of San Francisco.

It had been awkward for them to live with Max’s parents while they worked through their feelings for each other, but Chloe’s parents were dealing with recovering from the storm as well, so it was better for Chloe to stay with Max. Joyce and David were so grateful to Max’s parents, offering money to help pay for Chloe, but they would hear nothing of it.

On that train of thought, Max reminded herself to text Warren and see how he was doing. He was pretty busy with school and his internship at the lab, but he always seemed excited when he and Max got to talk. She finally found the green can stashed behind Monday’s Chinese takeout (not to be confused with Friday’s Chinese takeout). She walked up behind the couch and looked at the TV screen, which had a paused game screen. Chloe appeared to be melting on the couch from having been kept waiting.

“What is it?” Max asked. Chloe sprang up and unpaused the game. There was a large, spherical, floating robot moving around a kitchen that looked like it was from 1950. Chloe moved her character close to it and it looked towards her.

“Miss Chloe, how may I be of assistance?” the robot said.

Chloe turned around to look at Max, a huge grin on her face. “The robot butler says my name!”

Max smiled at her. “That’s really cool. Can it say mine?”

Chloe shrugged. “I dunno. Haven’t tried.” She turned back towards the TV, walking around a quaint little house that was just as retro as the kitchen. “I also apparently have a husband and kid. The dude’s named Nathan which kinda made me gag.”

Max didn’t want to touch that subject and changed the conversation. “Hey, you’re cool with the veggie pizza, right?”

“Yeah, just make sure my half has black olives.”

“Bleh. Whatever you say, weirdo.” Max walked back to the bedroom and gave Kate her soda.

“Thank you,” Kate said with a smile. She had stopped drawing because Salvador was lying on her notebook. “Alice is hiding under your bed so he got upset and came up here.”

Max sat in her chair. “She probably got tired of all of his energy. Little guy’s a handful.” Salvador was surprisingly fast for only having three legs and liked to run back and forth through the apartment. Max opened the pizza website on her computer. “Hey, I’m gonna go ahead and order the pizza. Veggie supreme, right?”

“Oh, you really don’t have to get it just for me. I can buy my own.” Kate was full vegetarian so they couldn’t have any meat on the pizza. They tried half once, but Kate got sick afterwards. With how often she was over, it had forced the girls to clean up their diet a bit and find vegetarian recipes.

“It’s no problem. We both like the veggies.”

“Alright, if you’re sure. Thank you.” She was petting Salvador, who was half asleep and purring loudly. “I’ve been meaning to ask, how are you and Chloe doing in school?”

Max was still pursuing Photography as her major. Her classes were actually a lot like Blackwell’s, which she was surprisingly thankful for after returning to boring high school classes. Chloe had decided she wanted to teach Sociology. "Somebody’s gotta teach these dumbass kids how to treat people like people," she had said. Every now and then Max forgot how kind and compassionate Chloe was underneath her punk exterior. It was moments like those that reminded her why she loved that blue-haired girl. 

“My classes are fine. Nothing too stressful. They do want everyone in my Art of Photography class to submit a photo to the school’s art magazine, which I’m sweating over a bit. But Chloe’s been helping me narrow down my submission. She’s doing really well, too. She’s really good at putting off homework and projects until the last minute, then acing them.”

“That’s good. I’m glad to hear that. I remember being kind of surprised by how good her grades were last year. She never seemed the student type.”

“Well, she’s not, really. Chloe’s just really smart. But her first test this year, she got a C and got pissed off, so she’s been getting better about studying and not waiting quite as long to do homework.” Chloe also nearly beat the shit out of one of her partners for a group project because he wouldn’t do any work. Eventually the teacher decided Chloe wasn’t allowed to work in groups, which she was fine with.

Kate laughed. “Progress,” she said. Alice had gotten jealous of Salvador and was cuddled up next to Kate as she stroked her back.

“What the fuck, man??” Chloe yelled from the living room.

“How’s your new book going?” Max asked.

“Really well! I have it all outlined so now it’s just a matter of drawing everything. My publisher actually has somebody helping me with coloring and backgrounds!”

“That’s so cool, Kate. I’m really happy for you!” Kate had also gone home after the storm to finish school. Her parents had hired a tutor at her request, though. She was understandably reluctant to go back to school. When she heard Max and Chloe were moving for school, she submitted her first book to several publishers in San Francisco, most of which said they’d love to have her work. She was able to sit down with all of them and pick the one she liked best. They let her work from home mostly (or from Max’s apartment), so she only had to take the bus into the city a few times a month to work at the office. Kate took online college classes, as well, so she stayed pretty busy.

“OH MY GOD MAX I HAVE A DOG!” Chloe exclaimed.

Max sighed. This was Chloe’s not-so-subtle way of trying to get Max to sit with her while she played. As tough as she acted, Chloe loved attention and affection. “I don’t think I’m gonna get much work done for a while. You okay if I go sit with her?”

“Not at all. I’m the one intruding here.”

“You’re never intruding, Kate. You know you’re always welcome here.”

“Are you sure? Sometimes I feel like I’m interrupting your lives. Or your, um, private time…”

Max felt her face turn red. “Yeah, sorry again about that. We forgot you were coming over that night.” Kate had come into the apartment after they hadn’t answered the door and looked in the bedroom at a bad time. They found her outside their apartment door a few minutes later with her face practically glowing red and buried in her hands.

Kate’s face was flushed now, too. “Yeah…” She took a drink of her soda.

"To be fair, Chloe was pretty blunt with her that that was why she couldn’t live with us," Max thought.

“But no, we love having you over. You never overstay your welcome.”

Kate smiled. “I’m glad. I still haven’t made any new friends here yet…I don’t want to cling to you guys too much.” She had moved here late in spring, just before their freshman year was over. Max felt kind of bad that she had mostly moved here because of them, but the publisher had hired Kate before she moved so she already had a job when she got here. She also found a church she really liked with some people her own age. Max was perfectly fine with Kate clinging until she found more friends.

“Really, it’s no problem at all,” Max reassured her. Kate smiled and looked down at the two sleeping fuzzballs using her for warmth. Max grabbed her camera off the desk and snapped a picture of the adorable scene. She carefully grabbed the photo that slid out and waved it, then set the camera down and looked at the picture. “I think that’s one for the scrapbook.” The scrapbook had actually been Chloe’s idea while they were staying with Max’s parents.

“Holy shit, my dog just fucked up that rat thing.” Chloe said very loudly.

Max laid the photo on her desk. “I’m gonna go in the other room. Lemme know if you need anything, okay?”

"Okay!” Kate began to slowly retrieve her pencil from beneath Salvador.

Max left the bedroom and went to their living room. Chloe’s character was walking through the woods with a gun as a dog ran ahead of her. She sat on the couch next to her, pulling her feet up on the couch. “What’s up?”

Chloe looked over and gave her a quick kiss. “Hey, what happened to homework?”

“Eh, this is more interesting. What are you doing?”

“I don’t really know. Some asshole shot my husband and stole my kid and now I’m just kind of wandering around and shooting big rats. Oh, look at this!” She went up to the dog and talked to it. The dog stood on its hind legs. “Look how cute he is!”

“Holy shit, it knows tricks. That’s awesome.”

“Right?” Chloe wandered into a ruined city. “Oh, this is where my compass is pointing. Cool.” She kept going and found people shooting each other. “Sweet, baddies. Bout time I got to kill some fools.”

“How do you know they’re bad?”

“They show up red on my compass. See?” She killed a nearby enemy. “Now the dot’s gone.”

“Cool.” Max was terrible at shooters. She mostly played her 3DS, but she and Chloe played Minecraft together on the Xbox. Max liked to build and garden while Chloe went off adventuring.

Chloe killed the last enemy and went into the building they had been shooting. There were more people inside who shot at her. “Son of a bitch, stop shooting me!”

“Isn’t that kind of their job, though?”

“It’s still rude!” The screen suddenly slowed down and zoomed in on one of the enemies. ‘Raider’ showed up in red over the guy.

“Is his name Raider?” Max joked.

“Nah, his name’s dead bitch.” The camera followed a bullet from Chloe’s gun as it blew up the Raider’s head in slow motion. “That was so sick!”

Max grimaced. “Yeah…” A knock came from the door. “Pizza!” Max jumped up and opened the door. She took the pizza and thanked the delivery guy. She put the pizza on their dining table. “Kate!” she yelled, “pizza!”

Kate groaned from the bedroom. “But…kitten!”

“C’mon, Chloe, pizza.” Max got plates for all of them and took a slice for herself.

“Yeah, alright. Lemme finish talking to these dudes.” Salvador came running out of the bedroom, turning into the living room and jumping on the couch next to Chloe. “Oh, hey, little dude,” she said as she scratched his head.

Kate walked into the kitchen. “He was being so good…”

“If he was being good, I’m not training him right,” Chloe remarked.

Max put one of Chloe’s black olive infested slices on a plate and took it to her. “Here ya go.”

“Oh, thanks babe,” she paused the game, shoved half the slice in her mouth, then kept playing as she chewed. “This guy said something about armor. Which is good cuz I’m naked right now.” Max barely understood her as she talked with her mouth full.

Kate sat in the chair nearby and watched the screen as she ate her pizza. “So what’s this game about?” she asked.

Chloe swallowed. “So I used to be like a housewife but there was a nuke and I got frozen, then someone defrosted my husband and kid, shot him, then stole my son. So now I’m like this badass revenge fueled bitch that’s looking for her son and killing everything in my way.”

Kate stared at Chloe. “Oh. Sounds…fun.” She sounded slightly horrified. The only game Max had gotten her to play much of was Animal Crossing. She had tried Minecraft but the monsters scared her. She sometimes joined them in Creative mode, though.

“Dude, it’s amazing.” Chloe leaned over and gave Max a quick kiss on the cheek. “You’re amazing.”

Max leaned on Chloe’s shoulder. “I know.” Max knew Chloe wanted the game, but she had to have her brakes changed on the car she had gotten this year after her truck finally gave up. Max was proud of how responsible Chloe had been with money since they moved here, so she took some cash out of her personal savings to surprise Chloe with the game.

Chloe snorted. “Dork.” She went through a door and found a suit of armor standing up on the roof. “What is…” Chloe walked up to it and shoved something in the back, then got into it like the Iron Man suit from the movies. “Holy SHIT.” She changed the camera and stomped around in the armor. “THIS IS SO HELLA COOL OH MY GOD,” she yelled as her character ripped a turret off of a vehicle. She was bouncing slightly and Max had to sit up.

“You’re like a fucking tank,” Max remarked.

“I KNOW.” Chloe jumped off the roof, making the ground shake as she landed. The huge gun spun up and started spraying bullets at the people who had appeared on the street.

“This is very violent,” Kate said. She sounded bewildered and she was staring intently at the TV. She took a bite of pizza without looking away.

Chloe proceeded down the street, taking out every enemy that popped out from behind cover. She laughed maniacally. “Get wreeeeeecked!” It seemed like everything was dead until a manhole cover flew into the air. A giant scaly creature crawled out and roared, which shook the screen. It looked like a small dinosaur. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?” Chloe screamed. “WHAT IS A DEATHCLAW WHAT DOES THE SKULL NEXT TO THE NAME MEAN!?” The thing charged at her as she shot it, apparently not caring about her gun. It grabbed her and put its face close. All three girls screamed as the monster roared and threw Chloe. “SHIT SHIT SHIT.”

“CHLOE KILL IT!” Max yelled.

“I’M TRYING!” She shot at it some more, but her gun stopped suddenly. “WHAT THE FUCK?” The creature smacked her aside again. “WHY WON’T YOU SH- OH GODDAMMIT I’M OUT OF AMMO.” As she said that, the monster slashed her with its giant claws and her body went limp. “Welp. I’m dead.” Chloe put the controller on her lap and devoured the rest of her pizza slice.

Max looked over at Kate, who was huddled up in the chair with a pillow covering her face. “Is it gone?” she asked, her voice muffled. During the commotion, Salvador had fled to the box in the corner that Chloe had cut up as a makeshift playground.

“You’re safe now,” Max told her.

“I mean, I think I have to fight that thing again since I died, but I’d say that’s a good place to break for some pizza.” Chloe got up and went to the kitchen for seconds.

“Good call. Kate, you want another slice?”

“Not right now, thank you.” She still sounded slightly terrified. Kate had never explored entertainment much beyond books. Chloe joked that she was corrupting Kate with R rated movies, punk music, and violent games, but Max knew that Kate was trying to expand her interests. She still had a ways to go, apparently, since she was still hugging the pillow.  
Chloe changed from the game to Netflix and turned on an episode of Breaking Bad, which she was making Kate watch when she came over. Kate seemed to like it so far; she was interested in the plot and laughed at funny parts. She did almost puke at the bathtub scene, though. They got through two episodes, chatted for a while, and finished off the pizza.

“It’s getting kind of late, so I should head out,” Kate told them. “Thanks for the pizza and for having me over.”

“Dude, you don’t have to thank us every time you know? You’re over all the time and we like you.” Chloe tossed a pillow at her. “You’re our friend, dude. That means you’re welcome here literally any time.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“If you thank me again, I’m tackling you,” Chloe teased.

“Better run, Kate. She’s heavy,” Max told her.

Chloe gave her a shove. “Fuck you, I am not!” Max laughed and put her arms around Chloe.

Kate picked up Alice in her carrying kennel, which she had retreated to earlier to sleep. She took her art supplies off the coffee table and headed towards the door. “Alright, have a good night, guys. Tea on Monday, right, Max?”

“You bet! Have a good night, Kate.”

“Later, Kate!” Kate waved with her notebook and was out the door, on her way to the bus stop in front of their apartment building. Max got up to close the door behind her and Chloe turned the TV back to her game. “Alright, round two, motherfucker.” Max returned to the couch and huddled up, leaning on Chloe. “Hey, you should get some work done,” Chloe told her. “I’m probably gonna be playing for a while. You don’t want to sit here and watch my dumb ass wander around for hours.”

“I always like watching your dumb ass,” Max teased. Chloe gave her a playful shove with her hips. “I’ll work on stuff tomorrow. That way if you don’t get your homework done you’ll feel super bad about distracting me today.” Max gave her a peck on the cheek. She knew Chloe would be sad if she left, anyway.

“Curse your trickery, Max Caulfield. You know I cannot resist your charm.” Max watched as Chloe’s character went through the same process of getting in the armor, picking up the gun, and shooting the human enemies. She noticed Chloe wasn’t endlessly shooting this time, instead firing just enough to kill enemies. Once again, when she had cleared out the street, the monster emerged from the sewers. “My name is Chloe Price. You killed me once. Prepare to die,” Chloe said with a butchered accent. She shot it in bursts, using her slow motion ability to land some hits. She got thrown aside a couple times, but moved around more to avoid it. After a minute, the monster finally fell over dead.

Chloe raised her arms in the air, hitting Max in the head as she did. “I AM THE BEST, BITCHES,” she yelled. She looked over at Max. “Sorry.”

Max chuckled. “You’re fine. He was no match for the mighty Chloe.”

“Damn right,” Chloe boasted as she took items off the dead enemies.

“Why do they all look like they’re out of the Mad Max universe?”

“They’re Raiders. That’s just what Raiders look like. Like, all Raiders ever. It’s the hot fashion in a post-apocalyptic world.”

“Doesn’t this guy know you can’t wear spikes after Labor Day?”

“I know, and this gas mask totally clashes with this rusty pistol.” There was a sound like ripping from behind them, followed by Salvador appearing on the back of the couch. “Hey, what’d I tell you about climbing, asshole?” Chloe carefully picked him up, which he responded to with a squeaky meow. She set him down between herself and Max and scratched his head.

Max sat watching Chloe play for a couple of hours as she ventured through the burned out environment. Eventually she started to doze off. “I think I’m gonna call it a night.” She leaned in to quickly kiss Chloe. “Don’t stay up all night,” she said as she got up and started towards the bathroom to get ready for bed.

“Hey, would you mind hitting the light for me?”

“Sure thing.” Max turned off the ceiling light on her way out of the room, leaving Chloe to play in the dark. She went through her nightly routine and crawled into their bed, where Salvador was already sleeping in the center. She carefully nudged him as she got under the covers and then fell asleep after a few minutes.

Max awoke in the middle of the night needing to pee. In her barely awake state she didn’t notice that the other side of the bed was empty. She got up and crossed the hall to the bathroom, noticing the light coming from down the hall. After she had finished, she stumbled sleepily to the living room. The TV had a message saying the controller was disconnected. Chloe was slumped on the couch, the controller lying next to her hand as she snored softly.

Max turned the controller on and made sure the game was saved then turned off the Xbox and TV. A soft orange light from a street lamp outside illuminated the room faintly. She nudged Chloe’s shoulder. “Chloe, come to bed.” The sleeping girl groaned and remained asleep. Max grabbed the blanket that was draped over the back of the chair and sat down next to Chloe, pulling it over both of them and snuggling up next to her. Chloe reflexively responded by putting some weight on Max and using Max’s head as a pillow. After a moment she joined Chloe in slumber.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic in like...8 years. So my first for this fandom. I appreciate constructive criticism! I plan to follow up with this after I do a holiday piece.


End file.
